Today we’d like to introduce you to Don Firth.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Don. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In the year 2000, my wife, Eunice, my son, Jake and myself launched JobsInLogistics.com, the very first job board for the logistics, supply chain and transportation profession. With absolutely no experience in the job board industry, we winged it and learned on the fly. Now eighteen years later, we remain the undisputed top job site for the logistics profession, with a staff of 35 and revenue in the eight figures.
I have spent my entire career in the logistics industry. After receiving a degree in Advanced Mathematics, (which was very boring), at Newcastle University in England, my first job was Inventory Control Manager for Smith’s Food Group. Three years later, fortuitously, my boss and his boss got fired on the same day. I was promoted to Distribution Manager, operating the production planning at 9 plants and the supply chain operation to 30 warehouses. At the age of 26, I had my annual review with the President of the company. He was very complimentary. I asked him what was the next step in my career. He assured me that I was already there. The thought of doing the same thing for another 40 years was less that appealing. I resigned on the spot and emigrated to Canada.
I spent 17 years in Canada before moving to the States. My career included the position of partner of Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCooper) responsible for their Logistics Consulting Division. I was the editor and chief writer of two best-selling business books on Logistics – “Distribution Management Handbook” and “Profitable Logistics Management (McGraw-Hill). My consulting projects including assignments in Greece and Thailand as well as developing supply chain training to the Department of National Defense.
After 5 years, I was headhunted to take the position of VP Logistics for Steinberg Supermarkets in Montreal. Here we successfully developed a novel supply chain strategy to combat one of the longest strikes in the Canadian Food industry. We leased a large warehouse and hired 300 people off the street. It started badly. The second day of operation, only 50% came back to work. The same happened on the third day. So we created the company’s very first incentive system. We paid (bribed) each worker $10 every time they turned up for work. We euphemistically referred to this as a performance bonus. Each day, my secretary went to the bank, cashed $3,000 and handed out 300 ten dollar bills. Absenteeism went to zero. After 2 or 3 weeks, the new workforce was running like clockwork. After 6 weeks the union capitulated and returned to work.
I was next head-hunted to become partner of Deloitte’s Logistics Consulting practice in Atlanta. Among the interesting projects, my team developed a supply chain strategy to help an unknown local Seattle coffee company, named Starbucks, to expand across the USA. I guess our plan worked! Three years later I was head-hunted to the position of SVP Logistics for Pathmark Supermarkets in New Jersey. Five years later I created my own logistics consulting practice and moved to Sunny Isles Beach, Fl.
At the end of the 1990’s a former employee of Pathmark was out of a job. We were just exploring opportunities in the evolving Internet and assured him we would find him a good position. We searched all the job boards, including Monster and CareerBuilder. Not a single job board advertised any jobs in logistics. In those days, they all concentrated on Sales, IT and Healthcare Professions. The keyword ‘warehouse’ lead one to ‘data warehousing’. On an inspiration, I suggested that we create a job board for logistics. Together with my wife, Eunice and son, Jake, we designed the board, copying all the best attributes from other job boards. For the next six months, Jake programmed the board in the daytime and delivered pizzas at night.
Just prior to our launch, we were selected by Florida Venture Forum as one of the 20 most promising, quality companies and invited to present JobsInLogistics.com to a group of investors. Eunice created posters pasted to cardboard and I made a PowerPoint presentation. In contrast, most of the other 19 companies already had second or third round investments under their belts and displayed their wares with professional booths, flashing lights, videos and the whole nine yards. At the end of the day, I believe the Investors doled out $165 million between the companies, most of which eventually went out of business. We were mentioned in a footnote in a Tampa newspaper, saying that ‘JobsInLogistics made a great presentation until it was discovered that the company was a 3-person family operation.’ We were the only company to get nothing. Nada!. With this insult, we vowed to never seek VC or Angel money, but to grow the company naturally. And that still stands.
On 2-22-2000 at 22 minutes after 2pm, JobsInLogistics.com went live. We were the first job site for the logistics industry. In 2001, we launched AllRetailJobs.com for the retail industry and in subsequent years we launched JobsInTrucks.com for drivers, JobsInManufacturing.com for plant operations, and Fleetjobs.com for mechanics. All are leaders in their respective fields. We bootstrapped the operation, starting off in our 3 bedroom condo in Sunny Isles Beach. As our staff level increased, we moved to a 5- bedroom condo in Aventura. Finally we purchased an office in North Miami Beach on Biscayne Boulevard.
Back in the early 2000s, the job board industry was evolving, with lots of small entrepreneurs starting job boards in a wide variety of niche professions. None of us really knew what we were doing; we just made it up as we went along. To gain more insight, we created a forum for niche job board owners and invited non-competing job boards to meet in Florida and exchange ideas. A key factor for everyone was how to acquire more candidates to grow their companies. Jake came up with the idea of pooling jobs from other job boards and posting them all on TopUSAJobs.com. This became the world’s first cost-per-click job board and spawned an entire industry, including aggregators, such as Indeed, SimplyHired.and ZipRecruiter.
One major success story is the incredible growth of JobsInTrucks.com, now the #1 job board for drivers. For many years, JobsinTrucks was a sleeper. Few drivers were visiting the Internet. Then about eight years ago, with a critical shortage of drivers. JobsInTrucks.com took off. This board increased revenues by more than 50 fold and continues to grow.
Our clients range from mega corporations, such as Amazon, Ross, Walmart, Ryder and Swift Transportation to smaller recruiting and staffing companies across the USA. Our business philosophy has always been to provide unequaled service and value to our clients. We charge companies a very competitive price to advertise their jobs or view our extensive resume databases. All services for the 2 million monthly job seekers are free, including viewing and applying for jobs and listing their resumes in our database. As we operate specialized boards, the quality of our candidates far exceed those of generalist board, where candidates apply for jobs regardless of qualifications.
Over the years, we continue to invest the profits back into the company and have grown every year, with the exception of 2008/2009, when the bottom fell out of the world economy. A major key to our success lies with the dedicated people who joined us over the years.
These include two of my daughters, Emma and Brittany, who both became top Account Executives. We are very thankful for Amy Noah, who started as an Account Executive 15 years ago. She quickly rose to SVP Business Development, leading more than 20 National Account Executives from across the USA. In 2016, we appointed her to the position of President of JobsInLogistics, a well-deserved promotion.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our biggest struggle came at the end of 2008, when the bottom fell out of the world economy. Having grown in double digits every year for 8 years, we suddenly lost 25% of our business overnight Very few companies were hiring. We cut back on our expenses and extensively researched to find companies that were still needing logistics candidates.
Based on our reputation for helping companies find the best professionals, we retained almost all of our clients. By 2011, we were finally ahead of our 2008 total and since then we continue to grow.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
JobsInLogistics.com is the first and largest online logistics job board specializing in career opportunities in logistics, supply chain, distribution, transportation, warehousing, freight forwarding, manufacturing, purchasing and inventory management. With the most extensive database of logistics resumes on the Internet, we connect over 35,000 employers and recruiters in the supply chain industry with qualified logistics professionals and hourly associates. Our mission is to assist job seekers find their ideal logistics careers.
JobsInLogistics.com provides companies and recruiters the best online source for qualified logistics candidates.
We are pleased to have helped tens of thousands of candidates find jobs in the supply chain industry each year.
Why are we different? As a niche job board, we attract very targeted and experienced professionals. It makes sense that nobody comes to JobsInLogistics unless they are in our industry. In comparison, the generalist boards attract all candidates, many of which apply for jobs regardless of qualifications.
What were you like growing up?
I never grew up!
Personality wise, I am an optimist. I believe everything is possible. My philosophy is -‘If in doubt, do it!’
Interest wise, I enjoy taking my Dodge Viper on various racetracks, including Homestead, Palm Beach, Sebring, and Daytona.
As a pastime, I wrote a satirical novel under the pseudonym Clive Quarmby, titled ‘The Accidental House Guest.’. The story starts as a parody about the job board industry, where two friends start a job board for people with zero talent called WarmBodyJobs.com, The slogan was ‘Where second best is just too good’ and “Gotta Pulse, we Gotcha a job.” Following the demise of WarmBodyJobs, the main character moves to Florida and gets involved with the wife of a mafia chieftain. Most of the action takes place in Golden Beach and Bal Harbour. The book is achieving 5-star ratings on Amazon.
Contact Info:
- Website: JobsInLogistics.com. JobsInTrucks.com, AllRetailJobs.com, JobsInManufacturing.com, FleetJobs.com, TopUSAJobs.com
- Phone: 305 956-2228
- Email: cs@jobsinlogistics.com
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